I am a strong believer that Amazon.com, Facebook and Google are going to be battling it out in the future for leadership in e-commerce. Amazon.com is the leader in e-commerce, Facebook is the leader in community and Google is the leader in search, which is rapidly becoming a decision engine.
One of the most important trends resulting from this evolution is f-commerce or e-commerce on Facebook. A few years from now, we’ll all look back and say “well, that was obvious”.
To catch up, on f-commerce, I asked John Corpus, co-founder and CEO of www.milyoni.com, to share his thoughts on the future of f-commerce. This is the first of a two-part series.
Q: John, f-commerce is a new term with high potential to change the game on how we buy online. Why should every e-commerce leader think today of how they will grow their business within Facebook?
A: The first three rules of retail is location, location, location. Set up a store where people already are and that place is Facebook. With over 750 million users and hours a day spent on the social network, Facebook is a formidable commerce platform. But simply putting your e-commerce site within Facebook is not enough. The opportunity is how you effectively reach these people using social interaction tools that converts fans into vocal customers and viral promoters of your products. The impact of a friends affinity with a brand or product on buying behavior cannot be denied. F-commerce leverages this information for the benefit of both the consumer and the merchant.
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Q: If you look out 3-5 years, are we moving toward a world where Amazon.com and Facebook are the two primary e-commerce marketplaces? What does the future look like?
I think f-commerce has the potential to keep thousands of brands more relevant and customer-facing than e-commerce ever did. While Amazon continues to focus on the efficiency of the buying process with features like Prime, f-commerce has a different focus. In the world of ecommerce, Amazon is both the brand and the platform, in f-commerce, Facebook is the Platform but products and service brands remain strong and direct with the consumer.
John, thank you. Great points. We’ll go with Part 2 on Monday of next week.
All the best, Bob
Note: I am on the advisory board for www.milyoni.com
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